Rules
You start by describing your nation. Its people, its government, customs, religion, whatever you see as defining aspects, usually about half a page to a page in length, though this can vary drastically. I, the GM, will post a map and everyone will pick their location on the map, in this case picking a starting planet in a starting system. From then on, every nation will have at least 4 turns to do with as they please. In the past, these four actions could be devoted to a number of categories, such as culture, which determines the unity of your nation, and military, among other things. For Stationbuilder, we have a few changes. Every nation gets at least 4 actions, and this increases by 1 for every 4 planets past your capital you own, to a maximum of 6. Only two of these actions can ever be devoted towards meta technology, or non-stat bonuses to put it another way. The remainder must be devoted towards planetary bonuses, and your action must describe what planet the research takes place on. If you lose the planet, you may lose the bonus. The categories are: Culture: This will determine the unity of your nation, once again. However, there is no element of absolute safety for even high culture nations. Starting on the 6th turn, every nation will roll a d20. If you roll a 3 or lower, your nation will crumble into rebellion. Culture will help prevent this, however, by adding a modifier based on your distance from the galactic average. For instance, If Player A has 9 culture, Player B has 5, and the galactic average is 8, Player A would need to roll a 2 or lower to rebel, while Player B would need at least a roll of 7 to avoid rebellion. A natural 1 will always result in a rebellion. Once again, in times of war, culture will determine the order of turns. Capturing a planet will add to the likelihood of rebellion, with a planet from a nation with superior culture adding a -2 penalty to your roll for the turn, and a planet from a cultural equal or lesser inflicting only a -1 penalty. Military: Actions can be spent to raise fleets (rather than armies and navies of the past, they are combined now.) When engaged in combat, every fleet will roll a d20, adding your military score. Losing fleets will retreat, either to another planet in the system, or if none remain, out of the system, and fight at half strength for the remaining turn. Fleets are only destroyed if they roll a nat 1 or 2 in combat, or 1 fleet is lost for every time the galactic military average can fit into the margin of victory fully. (For example, Player A has a combat result of 10, Player B has 30, and the average is 20. Therefore, Player B won by 20, and the average is at least 20, so 1 of Player A’s fleets is destroyed. No credit for partials.) Conquering planets will have a number of factors. Different planet types take longer to conquer, and every nation’s capital takes an extra turn. For every 10 successful actions based in a system (such as mining the planets, building statues, etc), the time needed to capture a planet in that system goes up by 1, to a max of 3. (These means the highest ever time it could take is 5 turns, but even this can be modified by technology to increase the ease of capturing planets.) When entering a system, if it is protected by a hostile fleet, the two sides will immediately fight. If the invader is defeated, they retreat back out of the system. If the defender is defeated, the fleet breaks off combat but remains in the system. The invader, on the following turn, chooses a planet to invade, and the defender’s fleet automatically moves to protect the planet, landing its own troops. A 2nd victory here by the invaders drives the defending fleet off planet, the following turn the countdown to conquest begins ticking down. If the defender wins, the invader is driven back into space and another fleet battle ensues. If reinforcements are added to a planetary battle after the defenders have been driven off, the countdown pauses, but doesn’t end. It doesn’t end until all the invaders are driven off planet, or the planet falls. Offensive tech is another thing that is changing for this game. Rather than provide you a flat bonus that adds on to your military score in the case of offensive engagements, similar to the way defense does, offense will now neutralize defense. If Player A has 10 Military and 5 Offense, While Player B has 3 Military and 10 Defense, Player A will roll a d20 and add 10 to their result, while Player B will roll a d20 and add 8 to it. Defense in Stationbuilder will be System specific. You designate what system it’s in, and that’s where you get the bonus. It can be either fleet or planetary defense, and it seems pretty easy to guess where each is helpful. When a planet falls, it is a traumatic affair. Therefore, when a planet is captured, the enemy does take control of the improvements that have been made to the planet, however, there is a 50/50 chance that each planet specific improvement (such as a statue or the house of your most famous painter) will be flattened. Income: This will work the same way as it always has, except that you will specify on which planet each improvement is. Planets: Terran Planets: +1 culture and +1 income for the owner, need a 10 up to colonize Barren Planets: +1 Income, Discover ruins on an 18-20 when colonizing (versus a 20 on any other planet). Need 12 up to colonize Ocean Planets: +1 Defense, +1 Income for every trade route you have. Need 12 up to colonize Ice Planets: +2 Defense. Need 14 up to colonize. Volcanic Planets: +1 Income, and the Fleet Cap Bonus. Need 16 up to colonize. Gas Planets: Fleet Cap Bonus, Trade Route Bonus (same as Ocean Planets). Need 17 up to colonize Asteroids: +3 Income and +3 Fleet Defense if you own the entire system. Uncolonizable. Fleets: There will now be a stricter limit on the number of fleets each nation can have. Every nation can have, and will start with 1 fleet. Full control of a system will add a 2nd fleet to the cap. Control of a volcanic or gas planet (1 per system) increases this cap by a further one. (So controlling 1 volcanic planet in a system that is elsewise controlled by someone else will provide a +2 bonus to the cap). In Stationbuilder, fleets now cost 20 wealth per turn, because of their rarity and the combination of navies and armies. If you go over the cap, every fleet you can support normally remains at full strength and 20 wealth per turn upkeep, every fleet above that fights at only half strength and costs 30 wealth to upkeep. Colonization: This one is pretty easy. Each different type of planet has a set number you need to roll to expand to it, some easier, some harder. You need to have a fleet in a system to attempt to colonize a planet there. Summary: ' '''Actions may be spent to increase culture or income, increase military or raise fleets, colonize planets, and of course, the meta actions that provide additional bonuses outside of pure stats. Which leads me to: '''Meta-Buster:' In addition to the limit on meta actions you can take, I’ve decided to limit the bonus to rolls meta tech can give you. Each nation has a set limit of +12 that can be added by all their meta techs, this can be distributed to a max of +5 per stat. This does not include things like warp tech, meta techs that don’t flatly increase stats. No limit on those (for now). Other Changes: For this Nationbuilder, at least starting off, we will have no time limits on turns. I will not post turn results until every player has either posted their actions, or requested I skip them for this action. (I do not advise this, but I understand if you have a busy few weeks and don’t wanna hold everybody up, and will work with people on this one.) This, I hope, will lead to a slower paced game, allowing people who are impatient for the next turn to post other fluff if they so desire, and fully flesh out their nation. This will also avoid the deadline glut of turns (I hope), allowing more time for everyone to read more fluff rather than seeing the wall of text coming in on deadline day and saying no way. Tech Trading is henceforth banned, however, I will be using the reverse engineering rules from Nat. VII. After 4 turns have passed, you may spend 50 wealth to attempt to reverse engineer another nation (that you’ve met)’s tech. On a 12 up, you get the bonus they got for their tech. This cannot be used on epic techs, and I will declare them epic techs when I post turn results. Each system is limited to 12 objects. These could be planets, asteroid fields, anomalies, or stations. This is to limit the space, and stop infinite expansion if somebody ever does decide they want to get meta tech to build large scale space stations. Trade will grant both partners in trade a +10 to income per turn, however these trade routes cannot move through entirely hostile systems. Be warned. The Scenario: Everybody starts off on their home planet. Every system is home to a warp gate. Nobody knows how to use them. Everyone can move throughout their system at ease, but nobody can leave or meet each other. Warp Gate technology changes this. Every system will have a planet with ruins of an ancient civilization that knew the secrets of this technology, and colonizing it can provide a bonus (if you can find it). The linkings between Warp Gates will be hidden until you research the technology to use them. Once more than half of you have researched it, I will show everyone the links, til then once you get it I’ll send you a pic. Generally, they link to systems around them, but you get some strange routes as well. Basically, this ensures a small time where everyone is isolated and can fully develop their nation before appearing on the world stage, gives a reason why rebellions don’t start so early, and provides an interesting gold rush imho. If you have any questions, or any friends you want to invite, hit me up, you know where to find me. You can also just post questions on the page. GLHF, and remember: Out there in the darkest recesses of space, dangers lurk. Dirakk the Conqueror, the remnants of the Hunger, and as yet undiscovered foes hide amongst the stars. Category:Nationbuilder IX: Stationbuilder